Pita bread or Pocket bread has grown in popularity due to the use of its pocket as a way of making a sandwich.Pita bread is a staple in many of the world’s Middle Eastern as well as Mediterranean cuisines. Pita or pitta bread also known as Arabic bread, is a soft slightly leavened flatbread baked from wheat flour that originated in the Near East. ( Source of information Wikipedia )
Baking Pita breads is super simple and it just requires very few ingredients to make it. Once you learn how to make Pita bread at home, I am sure you will never buy it from stores. Traditionally Pita breads are made using all purpose flour, but I tried baking them using whole wheat flour.
I am taking this post of mine for my blogger buddy Sarika for her flat bread collective post. Check out the collective post sarika’s blog The Taste of the world.
- 3 cups Whole Wheat Flour
- 1+1/2cup warm water
- 1 tsp sugar
- 1/2 tbs salt
- 1.5 tsp olive oil
- 1/2 tbsp active Yeast
- In a bowl mix sugar, yeast and warm water. Keep aside at room temperature for 10-15 minutes.
- In a big bowl, mix flour, salt and olive oil. Add the yeast mixture and knead the dough adding little water gradually.
- Cover this bowl with a plastic wrap and let it rest for almost 2 hours. After two hours knead the dough again and keep for 10 minutes more.
- Now divide the dough into 8-10 pieces and gather each piece into a ball. Now dust some dry flour on these balls and let them rest for few minutes.
- Using a rolling pin roll these balls into a disc which is 6 inch in diameter and 1/4 inch thick. Pre heat the oven at 500 F
- now roll all the breads like this and place them on a baking tray lined with parchment paper.
- Bake the breads in oven for 20-30 minutes until they are puffed and is pale golden. Take them out and keep them in a bowl covered with cloth. Cut them when desired and fill in the pita pockets with some delicious fillings and enjoy the breads.
- When kneading the dough, it should be slightly tacky, not dry. This recipe may be doubled. Pitas can be baked ahead of time and frozen, with parchment layered between them, then wrapped in foil and plastic wrap. Defrost, then toast in skillet as per recipe.
My previous attempt at making pita, using a different recipe, was tasty but failed to puff. But when I have read this recipe and saw pictures of puffy pita so i thought I have to try this. All of my pitas puffed up beautifully! I’m excited to add this fun bread to my repertoire.
Thanks, I am glad to hear this!